Question for those of you in college

[Special K]

Do you ever wish you had bought a prebuilt system (Dell, etc.) instead of your current rig? Everyone here would agree they aren't as good a value price/performance wise, but what about replacing parts and such? When a piece of hardware dies, first of all how long do you typically have to wait for a replacement (do any vendors/manufacturers cross ship) to arrive? Is that an inconveinience (sp?) to you to have to wait on the part and use another computer on the campus to do your work? What about having to pay to have the defective part sent back? I guess what I am asking is for any college students out there who didn't buy a computer from a big name company to possibly share any experiences you had with defective/replacing hardware and if you think you still made the right decision by going the custom build route as opposed to prebuilt. I recently bought a custom pc from monarch and while it runs great, I am just paranoid that as soon as I get to college this fall I will start having hardware failures left and right and will be kicking myself for not buying a dell from the university store.

 

[MrBond]

Never had a hardware failure (*MrBond starts knocking on wood) at school that wasn't my fault. Unless you use total crap for parts, you should be fine

 

[dowxp]

what kind of hardware failures? [wondering]

 

[datallah]

Hell no... i've never bought a new system and been through 3 new systems in college... The best bet is to build it yourself and then you can maintain it yourself!

 

[Prince of Persia]

Could you guys also comment on whether you guys would rathe have had a laptop or just stick with your desktop? (Could you back up your reasoning on either side, I'm sort of doubting my destop rig I'm buidling

 

[cvlegion]

Never had a critical hardware failure. I always have so many spare parts around. Build it yourself. You can spend as much as you would have for the OEM machine and you get twice as much.

 

[SickBoy5000]

I honestly love my desktop even though it is turning more into a POS everyday. I would take mine over a laptop any day just because I can do more with my desktop. I can freely upgrade when I feel like it. I don't have to search around for parts that fit. Also, I can honestly say that my video card is alot sweeter than just about anything a laptop has to offer. Plus, that screen and keyboard on the laptop isn't big enough for me. Give me a good 19" monitor. I'd take that over a stinky little 13.1" lcd screen.

That's my two cents.

 

[jamesey]

I are an student being edumacated in college.

My friends with pre-built computers like Dell, HP, Compaq, and Gateway have had way more problems than I have had. I was the RTA of my dorm, which meant I was in charge of fixing everyone's computer problems, which dealt mostly with getting on the network. A few times I had hardware problems and they had as much trouble as I would have had if I had to replace anything. I had to replace 3 video cards, 2 motherboards, 1 hard drive and fix cd-rw's all the time.

building and maintaining my own wasnt any more inconvienent than an OEM would be when I had to replace my cpu. I had no computer for a week in my room, but there are 2 computer labs on campus I used.

Dont buy computer stuff from the university store. it's all a ripoff

 

[docknload]

Laptop vs. Desktop? It all depends on your major and school. I'm a Computer Engineer and I find it very useful to be able to brin programs and circuit schematics into TA's offices to get help. It's also nice to be able to take my work with me. My school has places that I can take a laptop and work, like Libraries with E-Net connections.

On the other hand, I also have a desktop that I use in my room. I would hate to do all my work on a 14" screen when I can use a 19" and 3 times the speed.

It all depends on what you would use the laptop for and where you would do most of your work. Chances are, your TA's and Proffs have computers and you can bring your work to them on a floppy or something. I you spend a lot of time on a computer, haveing a more comfortable desktop is my suggestion. If you need to get lots of assistance and you work in groups, the Laptop gives you the portability.

Hope this helps, good luck

 

[Avalanche007]

The only problem I've had with hardware failure is a hard drive crash. It was no big deal, i sent it back and in about 2 weeks i received my replacement. If you build your own system you have warrenties with the hardware and you dont have to pay for it like Dell. So the 5 dollar RMA charge was not a big deal. Build it yourself and you know what you have in your computer. A lot of places put crappy parts in it and that is usually the reason it fails in the first place.

 

[Maverick]

<< Never had a hardware failure (*MrBond starts knocking on wood) at school that wasn't my fault. Unless you use total crap for parts, you should be fine >>



key part is not to use total crap for parts. If you buy brand name stuff (at good prices of course) you're less likely to have problems.

only time I had a problem is because my POS OEM p2 400 CPU from Accubyte died on me and I had to get it replaced. If I knew half of what I know now I probably could've figured out what the problem was.

 

[jimmygates]

&quot;So the 5 dollar RMA charge was not a big deal.&quot;


Uh...who charges $5 for RMA? IMO they shouldn't charge you anything.



-Jimbo

 

[Davegod75]

#1 rule...never never ever buy from the university store. Total rip offs

second your much better off building your own system. you can get almost any part you next shipped overnight if you need to

 

[mchammer187]

The money you save from not buying a dell/gateway will more than pay for the cost if a part breaks anyways

 

[somethingwitty]

I bought my system from dell before going to school...

I didnt want to spend time during the summer b/4 college building a system, plus I was given a certain (large ) amount of money at graduation to spend on my comp, so I didnt feel the need to hunt for bargains.

I wouldnt really recommend this method. I havent had any failures yet, but I know I could have built a better system.

 

[rommel]

i have opnly lost two things....one werner cdrom adn a lucent pci modem....not bad for like 6 yrs...but i would never buy a system from anyone again...only a laptop cuz ya cant build it really yourself

 

[kelesh3]

Prices are cheap, i have a job, i could just buy a replacemtent part if anything died. Luckily nothing has, though.

 

[dowxp]

<< &quot;So the 5 dollar RMA charge was not a big deal.&quot;


Uh...who charges $5 for RMA? IMO they shouldn't charge you anything.



-Jimbo >>



UPS Shippping charge.

 

[Keego]

well after having a desktop in the dorms, I am getting a laptop (living in an apartment this upcoming year) but it's going to be a geforce 2 go based one so I'm going to have enough power for gaming, yet I can take it around and work in the library etc in groups also. We'll see how it works out

 

[randomlinh]

i'm living on campus, so its all desktop for me three i think this year... ahah... a linux server, my comp, and a divx box (well, that's the projected plan, my funds keep getting shot back )

if i were off campus, i'd like to toss in a laptop if i could afford it.. w/ long range wireless networking that of course won't happen... heh.

As for parts failing... well, not too much of a big deal. gives me an excuse to upgrade

As for RMA's.. i believe abit charges $25 :|

 

[Keego]

<< As for parts failing... well, not too much of a big deal. gives me an excuse to upgrade >>



lol great reasoning

I will have 3 machines also (in apartment)
One is a duron 850@935 w/ 384mb ram, it is the Lan Party CS Server (not on unless it's at a lan party)

One is a BP6 366's@550 w/ 512mb ram, this is our apartment server (runs cs server upon occasion)

And then my laptop, soon to be purchased (next 2 months)
Inspiron 8000, 32mb geforce 2go, 30gb hdd, the works! (god I cant wait till I get this!!)

 

[Hanpan]

I built my own computer and must say i love it. Hardware failures are rare and generally occur within the first 3 months. After that the chance is even more rare. AS for replacements most places are pretty quick.

 

[cchan]

<< Never had a hardware failure (*MrBond starts knocking on wood) at school that wasn't my fault. Unless you use total crap for parts, you should be fine >>



Same here. The only exception was a cheap SMC NIC that the @Home guys game me (but then refer the MrBond's point about crap parts). And the other times it was me screwing up while messing around inside the box. (I overvoltaged a Celeron, and I knocked a couple of transistors off a PII while trying to take off the casing and install a heat sink right on the CPU.)

In fact, 50% the Dell notebooks I have used (ok so that is one 2 out of 4) had to be shipped back because of hardware failures like burnt out mobos.

 

[Special K]

<< The only problem I've had with hardware failure is a hard drive crash. It was no big deal, i sent it back and in about 2 weeks i received my replacement. If you build your own system you have warrenties with the hardware and you dont have to pay for it like Dell. >>



That is the main thing I am worried about. By the time I would RMA the HD, wait two weeks for the replacement, and pay for shipping the defective one back, I could have already had a new one from Dell (although it would be a refurb.) at no cost to me (well, I guess with Dell you pay for your replacement parts up front). That is assuming, of course, that it even fails in the first place. Maybe I am just being way too paranoid. It's a 60GXP (doesn't Dell use those now anyway) so I don't think it has a track record of failure.